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Friday, March 11, 2016

Cow & Chicken: a review

Cow & Chicken has to be one of the weirdest shows to ever come out of Cartoon Network Studios. David Feiss is responsible for this masterpiece. He's worked on Ren & Stimpy, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

If you're not familiar with the show, you just need to see the intro to get the idea.

The theme song tells you everything you need to know - "Mama had a chicken, mama had a cow. Dad was proud. He didn't care how". Cow & Chicken is openly committed to being ridiculous.

Essentially, it's a family comedy with a twist. You've got a family with two children, who go to school, play, do arts and crafts, spend time with friends. Their parents do everything to make sure the kids are fed, healthy and brought up well. Now, what is the twist? The children are an 11-year-old chicken called Chicken and a 7-year-old cow called Cow. The parents are human, but you only see their legs, which is addressed later in the series. Also, there's a big fat Red Guy with no pants, who effectively stalks these kids, finding various ways to scam them. Adults in the series seem incredibly stupid, or unaware of them immediate surroundings, & let kids get into danger.

It's somewhat similar to the Addams Family - we have a family with some very well established, but really odd customs and values. Except the entire world is messed up, not just their particular household. And the traditions aren't dark as such, they're just really weird. For example, as a special treat, Cow and Chicken get pork butts and taters for dinner. Now what does that mean? Well... their parents load a mini catapult with, quite literally, cooked pig butts and potatoes and the kids catch those in their mouths.

Appetizing, is it not?

If you like strange shows, this one is really fun.

Series name: " Cow & Chicken"Foxy's rating:Expectations: I saw the show before I knew what to expect from it. It's more clever than it appears.Writing: "Dumb show" made by clever people, who are being passive-aggressive to the censorship department. But all the weirdness is piled on top of a very familiar structure - a cute family comedy.Animation: Very lively, purposely messy & inconsistent (especially noticeable with characters' teeth, which constantly change shape). Special care is taken to highlight all things gross, but those bits aren't painful to look at since the style is far from realistic. A lot of attention is also given to characters' butts.Action: Exaggerated, kind of slapstickDrama: Utterly ridiculous.Humour: On the surface we've got jokes about butts, weenies, manure and the occasionally cross-dressing Red Guy. Underneath that you'll occasionally find clever dialogueWorth watching: I like it, so I'd say yes. If you want to watch it, prepare to give it a proper chance.Curious fact:Cow, Chicken and the Red Guy were all voiced by the same person - Charlie Adler.The best episode:I like all of them, so it's hard to say."The Girl's Bathroom" Is a good season 1 episode, if you want to get familiar with the show.Also, "Cow's Dream Catcher" is pretty cool, if you like stories about nightmares.I Am WeaselThe first episodes of "I Am Weasel" were part of the "Cow & Chicken" show, but, since it became its own series later, I will eventually review it as its own series.

This show is not for everyone. But it's really fun if you can appreciate it.